Impressions: Very creative, very personal, very feminist-friendly, punk rock and… and guy-feminists, too! I saw the word ‘herstory’ a couple of times.

Significantly more activist-oriented than anticipated. More punk than anticipated…

There was work addressing all kinds of issues. I was a little overwhelmed, so I gravitated away from the angry ones or the ones collecting stories about folks living with mental illnesses (for example) and instead looked at the art and literature (and travel) zines.

I wish I hadn’t wandered away from the others because what is more beautiful than raw, real expression of one’s self and one’s ideas or collections of such? My goal for next time will to be a bit focused and look at them all.

Bought zines exploring adulthood, moving to a new city (Philadelphia), and traveling to Winchester, VA and the rest…

Smudge was an interesting experience. Firstly, it was held in a very lovely space in the Artisphere. And, because it was only one day (rather than the usual two), it was pretty crowded throughout the whole event. The one thing that drove me crazy though was that they played soundtrack music consisting primarily of Darth Vader’s theme for most of the day for no apparent reason. But overall I met some nice people who I’ll most likely see again at SPX in September and discovered that there’s a lot of interest in Scared Stiff.🙂

APE 2013 was utterly exhausting and not very successful monetarily, but I met some really amazing people — so that’s fine by me.

We were 908B and no one show up at 908A, so an APE staff member came over to tell us to take over the rest of the table. So that was a plus!

I also unexpectedly got some very useful advice regarding costumes for Death Is No Bad Friend! Who knew I would find myself chatting to a gentleman dressed as The Phantom of the Opera?

I’m glad to have exhibited at SF Zine Fest, SPX, and APE this year, but I’m not sure that I would do this next year. I think I haven’t found my niche quite yet. I’m going to look into some book fairs and continue my search for an agent to represent my work.🙂

Some last minute The Flea ornaments!

More Flea ornaments!

We’re here!

Saturday’s table.

All the zines, etc.

Sunday’s table!!!

A taste of APE.

***

Illustration by Felicia Ann.Disclaimer: I do not own this image!!

Felicia Ann was one of our very lovely neighbors! She was selling some beautiful prints and hand-bound sketchbooks. Check out her website feliciaann.com and Etsy shop etsy.com/shop/Hyliotrope.

***

6th Circle written by Jackson McBrayer and illustrated by Xander “Grim” Kent.Disclaimer: I do not own this image!!

Writer Jackson McBrayer was an absolute sweetheart! I’m very much looking forward to checking out his webcomic 6th Circle, about a strange tattoo shop.🙂

A comic about William Blake! That’s pretty much all Gallas needed to say to sell me on it, but it’s really a beautiful and touchingly told little book. I picked up the first zine of it which contains the first 10 pages, and it was enough to make me check in on the website, where the first 30 are up and available for viewing. Blake is such an oddball figure in literary history, he was More Than Due for a comic treatment, and Gallas does it precisely as it ought to be done.

***

Disclaimer: I do not own this image!!

I had a great little conversation about George Grosz with Katherine Kreider Wirick and bought a copy of her graphic novel zine Nervenkrank: A Story About John Heartfield. Grosz was my main visual influence for The First Reich, so it was great to hear that Grosz would be appearing as an actual character in Katherine’s series. Check out her website katherine.kreider-wirick.com and Tumblr katherinewirick.tumblr.com.

***

Pariah Missouri by Andres Salazar and Jose Pescador.Disclaimer: I do not own this image!!

I was particularly impressed by the gorgeous watercolor work of Pariah Missouri! :D facebook.com/PariahMO